A former US Marine-turned activist told a Turkish court on Thursday that Israeli commandos had opened fire from a helicopter on a Gaza-bound aid ship three years ago. The claim contradicts Israeli’s claim that the soldiers had acted in self-defense.
On May 31, 2010, Israeli naval commandos using speedboats and
helicopters boarded the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara, part of the
‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ that was attempting to break the
Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver
humanitarian relief.
In the ensuing melee, eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish
American were killed, and many were wounded. Ten Israeli
commandos were also wounded, one of them seriously.
The incident sparked a deep diplomatic crisis between Israel and
Turkey - the former a committed ally of the United States, the
latter a full-fledged NATO member waiting for membership in the
European Union. Today, relations between the two remain tense.
Now, a trial being held in absentia in Istanbul against Israel's
former Chief-of-Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and three other senior
commanders may aggravate bilateral relations even more between
the two former allies.
Kenneth O'Keefe, an Irish-Palestinian and former US marine who
was aboard the humanitarian vessel during the conflict, told the
Turkish hearing, which convened in June of last year, that
Israeli soldiers had started shooting from the helicopter while
it was still in the air.
"Within five to 10 minutes after the Israeli helicopter
approached the ship, I ran into Cevdet Kiliclar's dead body on
the deck, before any Israeli commando had boarded the
vessel," O'Keefe said, referring to one of the Turkish
activists.
"He must have been shot from the air. After seeing Kiliclar's
dead body, I went upstairs to the top of the deck and saw several
people lying on the ground, wounded or dead."
Israel has dismissed the Turkish proceedings as a political
"show trial" of four former IDF commanders.
The 144-page indictment lists "inciting murder through cruelty
or torture" and "inciting injury with firearms" among
the charges against the now-retired Israeli officers and seeks
life sentences for the commandos.
O’Keefe’s testimony supports Turkey’s official findings of the
incident, described in a September 2011 UN report, which said
Israeli commandos had fired upon the activists before boarding
the ship.
“IDF personnel began firing on the Mavi Marmara from both the
speedboats and helicopters before boarding had commenced….Two
passengers were killed by shots from the helicopters before the
first soldiers had boarded the vessel,” the Turkish
Commission report said.
Turkey’s version of events, however, clashes with that of
Israel’s version, also summarized in the UN report.
“Three ‘flash bang’ stun grenades were thrown from the
helicopter before and during the descent, but no shots were
fired. The soldiers from the first helicopter were met with an
extreme level of violence from a group of passengers on the
vessel,” according to the Israeli position.
Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador after the 2011 UN report,
which concluded, seemingly in favor of the Israeli position, that
while Israel had used “unreasonable force” during its raid on the
Turkish ship in international waters, its blockade on Gaza was
legal.
Ankara announced its demands for normalizing bilateral relations
with its neighbor - an apology, compensation and Israel ending
its embargo on Gaza.
In March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and apologized for
the deaths of the nine activists, pledging to reach an agreement
on compensation for their families.
The hearing has been adjourned until March 27, 2014.